


Invader

by NikaV



Series: Unknown [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Dr Nyarlathotep, Gen, Manipulation, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:47:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23946409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NikaV/pseuds/NikaV
Summary: Jack deals with his visitor. Maybe.
Series: Unknown [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1726297
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	Invader

**Author's Note:**

> A direct continuation of ‘Visitor’.
> 
> Many things could have happened after the end of ‘Visitor’. But the Doctor is a Complex Event as relating to Space and Time, and probably as relating to a few other planes of existence as well. When he moves, history changes.  
> Therefore, we, Humans, cannot possibly perceive what actually happened. But we can be certain that it wasn’t this. Probably. Possibly.

The Time Lord moved past Jack before he could say anything. As he passed, the Captain thought he felt rain hitting his face, but when he brought his hand up to wipe the wetness away, there was nothing but the trail of a tear he hadn’t noticed before. 

He made himself turn, moving through the paralysis brought on by fear, following the Time Lord with his eyes, turning his back on the Tardis. It made him feel vulnerable, turning his back to the impossible ship, but at least it seemed immobile for the moment. The Time Lord was not. 

“Doctor?” he finally croaked. His mouth was still dry, despite the lingering oppressive dampness in the air. 

The Doctor – if that really was him, though Jack wasn’t so sure – had made his way to the Rift computers. Jack heard the sound of a keyboard being tapped, but he wasn’t convinced that the Doctor was actually doing any tapping. 

“Captain,” came the acknowledgment. It didn’t sound like the Doctor, he thought for a moment, before concluding that that was silly. The Doctor had always sounded like that in this particular incarnation. 

The Captain, meanwhile, had found the courage to take a few steps closer. Somewhere deep in the back of his mind, a voice told him that he should have wanted to hug the Doctor, but the urge eluded him at the moment. 

An even deeper part of him was still screaming with fear, but Jack couldn’t hear it anymore. 

He shot a curious look at the Rift computers, trying to determine what his friend was trying to accomplish. Not that Jack didn’t trust him – of course he did. There wasn’t much that could ever shake the Immortal’s trust in the Time Lord. 

Jack shook himself. How was he even so sure that this was the Doctor? The Doctor didn’t usually arrive as though he had coalesced out of thin air, after all, and yet… He didn’t finish the thought. 

He looked at the Doctor, whose face was marred with a frown. He looked back at the Rift computers, taking another step closer, trying to determine what was wrong. As he did so, he thought he saw something else out of the corner of his eye. His gaze whipped back to the Time Lord, but his friend hadn’t changed position at all. 

He hesitated, then dismissed whatever it was he had seen. He was just a bit unsettled; there was no need to start jumping at shadows. 

Instead, he asked: “Is there something wrong, Doctor?” 

The Doctor rearranged his face and shot Jack a bright grin. 

“Nothing more than usual,” the Time Lord told him. 

“So, we’re about to be invaded by especially vindictive and blood-thirsty aliens?” Jack retorted, trying to be lighthearted. Even as he said it, the words turned to ash in his mouth. 

“Exactly,” the Doctor returned brightly. 

Something about the brightness of the grin on the Doctor’s face chilled Jack’s blood. 

Jack knew, of course, that the Doctor was a lot more dangerous than he usually appeared. He was quite aware that the Time Lord’s disarming grins meant nothing but trouble, and that there wasn’t an enemy he hadn’t faced and defeated. 

Somehow, these well-known facts had never hit him like they did now. 

The smile on the Doctor’s face slipped a bit. 

“Is something wrong, Jack?” the Doctor asked. He sounded genuinely concerned. 

For a moment, there was absolute clarity in Jack’s mind. He didn’t know where it came from, or if it actually came from anywhere, really, but he made use of it. 

“What are you?” he asked of the Time Lord, before he could change his mind. 

The Time Lord quirked an eyebrow, but didn’t answer. Instead, he went back to fiddling with the computers. 

Jack didn’t much care for the dismissal, but it had been a blunt question. Also, there was an alien invasion at hand. They should really deal with that, first. He’d get back to the Doctor’s peculiarities, later. 

“What are you doing?” the Captain asked instead. Information was streaming across the multiple screens at rates he couldn’t possibly keep up with. 

As he looked at the streaming information, he thought he saw something decidedly wrong with the Doctor in his peripheral vision. He turned to the Time Lord again, but his friend was simply staring at the screens, apparently oblivious to everything else. 

“Right, yes,” the Doctor exclaimed suddenly, “Time to put a stop to this. Are you ready, Jack?” 

Before Jack could agree or disagree, the shadow that used to be the Doctor’s hand had reached out to him. 

He felt himself being dragged, though he didn’t really understand how this was happening or where he was going. He could smell lightning again, and hoped against hope that he wouldn’t be electrocuted. It was a nasty way of going, as these things went. Not that there were any good ways of going, really. 

Before Jack had any time to contemplate what was actually happening, he and the Doctor were standing in a different place. 

“You make this so much easier,” the Doctor said. Jack had no idea what he was talking about. 

The Time Lord was grinning at him again, and Jack was sure it was supposed to be friendly and reassuring. 

“What’s the plan?” Jack inquired, because it seemed like the thing to do. 

“No time to explain,” explained the Doctor, before he reached out a hand – solid, this time – and touched Jack’s temple. 

Just like that, Jack knew exactly what to do. The Doctor ran off in a different direction, and somehow, Jack also knew exactly what the Time Lord was going to do: give them a chance. 

Still a bit shaky, the Captain pulled himself together and started to make his way to the engine room of this vessel he’d known nothing about not five minutes ago. It was time for some sabotage. 

The engine room was nearby, and conveniently unguarded. The Doctor had to have brought them close on purpose, Jack knew now that he knew the layout of the whole ship. He didn’t think too much about it; instead reaching out to a number of the engine’s controls. 

As he did so, he noticed a sticky, orange-red liquid on his hands. He tried to wipe it off. When that didn’t work, he turned back to the controls. He knew, instinctively, that there wasn’t time to worry about dirty hands right now. 

It wasn’t hard to manipulate the controls in such a way that the whole ship would blow up if it made one wrong move, including any move that took it closer to Earth. 

Jack wondered about the Doctor for a moment. Then he wondered about himself. How was he going to get out of here, exactly? The Doctor hadn’t said anything about a rendezvous, let alone a backup plan. The Time Lord hadn’t even repaired his Vortex Manipulator. Or had he? Jack’s memory seemed fuzzy on that particular point. 

No, he was rather sure that the Doctor had touched it. Of course, they had used it to get to the ship in the first place. Maybe. They had to have used it. How else had they gotten here? 

The Doctor was a Time Lord, yes, but Time Lords still needed Tardises to get around, usually. Or Vortex Manipulators, as the case may be. 

His thoughts were interrupted when he felt a hand on his shoulder. The Doctor was standing behind him. He hadn’t heard him coming. Had he been too deep in thought? That wasn’t like him, not in the middle of a mission. 

Either way, the Doctor was here, and they should probably get out of here. 

“Did they listen?” 

Jack hoped they would have. He knew how heavily it sat on the Doctor’s hearts to destroy his enemies. 

The Time Lord shook his head. There was no grin on his face this time. 

“No, but you’ve sabotaged their engines, and if they get close to Earth, well...” the Doctor declared. 

“They’ll blow up,” Jack finished for him. 

“Yes,” the Doctor agreed. There was something about him now that made Jack wonder how anyone could ever mistake the Doctor for a human being. 

“Come on,” the Time Lord said, reaching out a hand. Before Jack could protest, he was swallowed by shadow. Between one breath and the next, he was back in the Hub, standing next to the computers. 

Had that really happened, Jack wondered for a second. Had he just gone up to a gargantuan spaceship to sabotage its engines, or had he been here all along, just imagining that the Doctor had shown up and needed his help? It felt more like a dream than reality. 

Then he saw movement from the corner of his eye. He turned. The Doctor was right there, striding back to his impossible blue box. 

Jack looked at the Tardis. It seemed to shimmer in the air. At the same time, the Doctor seemed to change in his peripheral vision. But when he looked back, the Time Lord was just there, solid and completely fine. 

“Thanks, then, Jack,” said the Doctor. He was obviously ready to leave Jack behind again. 

But Jack wasn’t ready for the Doctor to take his leave.

He made a grab for his friend’s arm, but his fingers slid through him as through water. Or had he just misjudged the distance? 

He took a lunge, and grabbed the Time Lord from behind to hug him. 

This time, he connected with something solid, and after a microsecond it even felt like flesh. 

“Please stay,” Jack murmured, putting his head on the Time Lord’s shoulder. 

“I’m sorry, Jack,” the Doctor apologized. This time, Jack knew that the Doctor wasn’t really sorry at all. 

“Just for a while,” the Captain pleaded. There was no answer. 

“At least give me some answers,” he tried again.

But even as he asked for it, he knew he would never get what he wanted.

Jack couldn’t see the Time Lord’s face, but he knew the Doctor was smiling. 

“I can’t stay, but I will always be able to find you.” 

The words were not as reassuring as they should have been. 

The solid weight in Jack’s arms melted away, and he heard the sound of the Tardis, mixed with the noise of a storm. Jack wasn’t afraid anymore. 

The Doctor’s form moved next to that of the Tardis, and then Jack blinked. 

When he opened his eyes, the Hub was silent and empty. Time had passed. 

Jack looked down at himself, concluded that he was covered in something sticky of which he didn’t know the source, and made his way to his quarters to have a quick shower. 

When he came out of the shower, some of the members of his team had appeared. He went to them, and talked to them. 

Jack didn’t think of the Doctor at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Was this the only thing that probably didn’t happen? Well, no, of course not...


End file.
